I’m a passionate UX Thought Leader, focused on leveraging user insights to drive innovative and user-centered solutions that enhance experiences and achieve business goals.
As an experienced UX Thought Leader, I have utilized my natural inquisitiveness and curiosity to drive collaborative and high-level UX Strategy across a variety of industries and a plethora of experiences, by bringing actionable insights to cross-functional teams to create meaningful improvements for users. Combining my background in academic research and my industry experience, I approach all aspects of my work with an eye toward increasing efficiency, effectiveness, and reproducibility to strengthen the consistency and rigor of work across the organizations I have supported.
Along with my academic and professional background, I have used my personal life experiences and unique knowledge set gained from my unusual upbringing and family to challenge the status quo and traditional ways of working, when necessary. As a child my parents encouraged my siblings and I to pursue our passions and hobbies wherever they may lead, and to share what we learned amongst ourselves - and with 8 siblings, this meant that I was exposed to an exceptional number of topics and special interests from a very young age. This experience (which continues to this day), has allowed me to develop unconventional approaches to problem-solving through the active solicitation of advice and perspectives from a multitude of disparate mindsets and behaviors. This has provided me with the extraordinary ability to bring about beneficial modifications and adaptations to my teams/orgs and their processes, in innovative and creative ways.
By combining my personal, academic, and professional experiences I have embraced, cultivated, and refined my own distinctive approach to my work as a UX Thought Leader. I view my primary responsibility as being an educator and champion for not only users, but also my colleagues and the organizations I support. To do this I have focused on the development of 4 key traits:
Enthusiasm and Willingness to Learn. I believe that true UX Practitioners are empathetic nerds at heart. Those of us who are most passionate about what we do, are often driven by the understanding that there is more to learn in life than there will ever be time to learn it, but still having an insatiable desire to try. As a UX Thought Leader I am fueled by my desire to learn as much as I possibly can about how others view and experience the world, and in turn share that with others. While our differences make us individuals, our similarities make us human – and the more we can learn about the experiences of others, the better able we are to improve the world around us.
Empathy and Compassion. UX is built on the practice of putting ourselves as humans and professionals, in the shoes of our users, to see the world through their eyes. To do this, one must be willing to “mirror and share the user’s expressions, needs, and motivations”, as expressed by the Nielsen Norman Group. From there, we must then go a step further and use what we learn to drive change on behalf of others. The goal of UX is to learn about and advocate for others, who may not normally have a voice at the table, emphasizing the similarities and differences between groups, to highlight and address their issues or concerns through the iteration of experiences.
Collaboration and Communication. To effectively drive change for users, it is essential that UX Practitioners share what they’ve learned in ways that are understandable AND relatable. Without an efficacious avenue for telling the story of users to others and calling attention to the most significant moments of insights, UX becomes just another item to check off a to-do list, rather than an opportunity to bring clarity, ease, and usability to an experience. This is often thought of as the responsibility of UX Researchers and Designers but is only truly possible through collaboration with others, particularly across domains, to ensure the most effective forms of communication and storytelling are employed both internally and externally.
Problem Solving and Out-of-the-Box Thinking. A core component to the successful implementation of UX Strategy and Innovation requires situational awareness, humility, and flexibility. Effective problem-solving requires an understanding of the problem(s) to be solved, the context of the problem(s) through analysis and/or observation, identification of the users and/or processes impacted, and the sharing of knowledge of the problem(s) amongst stakeholders (situational awareness). By creating a shared understanding among stakeholders, it is much easier to identify the individual components that need to be prioritized when addressing problems. It also opens an avenue for collaborative discussions where sharing gaps in knowledge and differing perspectives can, and should, be actively encouraged (humility). This collaboration and communication can then be used as the basis for generating potential solutions, paving the way for opportunities to break away from traditional ways of working (flexibility).